Recent popularization of internet connection services for cellular phones such as “i-mode” (trade mark) has increased the amount of information distribution in text data. In addition to exchanging e-mails, various services such as mobile banking, online trading and ticket purchasing became available for cellular phones.
On the other hand, information in text data has the following drawbacks: (1) information on a small screen of a cellular phone is hard to read, especially for aged people; and (2) such information is useless for sight disabled people.
Therefore, a cellular phone that has a function of reading out the text data has been suggested. For example, with a cellular phone described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. 2000-339137, a user can select one of predetermined voice data categories (e.g., man, woman, aged or child) so that text data is converted in a voice based on the selected voice data.
However, the cellular phone described in the above-described document causes incongruous feeling to the user since the voice synthesis data is reproduced in a voice different from that of the person who sent the text data.